Booking available HERE from 10am Monday 27th January
Sundays at Noon present:
Enoch Arden
Annette Cleary- cello, Réamonn Keary – piano, Barry McGovern- narrator
Enoch Arden, a poem by A. L. Tennyson, was the inspiration for a melodrama for piano and narrator by Richard Strauss. It was composed in 1897 for actor Ernst von Possart who was influential in securing a position for Strauss as conductor of the Bavarian State Opera. Strauss and Possart toured extensively with this work and it proved hugely popular with audiences. After many decades of neglect it was brought to prominence in 1962 in the acclaimed recording by Glenn Gould and Claude Rains.
Cellist Annette Cleary and pianist Réamonn Keary have collaborated to create a new arrangement of the work for cello, piano and actor. As the piano part is orchestral in texture, the music is ideally suited to feature the cello which, with its broad range and similarity to the human voice, is the ideal instrument for this newly imagined composition. The work is in two halves each about 25 minutes in length.
In recent years Annette and Réamonn have performed their arrangements of works by Strauss, Faure, Rachmaninov and Poulenc for cello and piano. We also are dedicated to exploring and performing historical works by female composers and this year we have arranged Rita Strohl’s Sonata Dramatique for cello and piano to include a narrative which we commissioned from poet Josephine Nolan and performed with actor Barry McGovern.
